Blackstone Credit & Insurance, the newest business division of global asset manager Blackstone, has closed financing for a large-scale battery storage project in California, US, with developer Arevon.

News in brief, from another busy week for our colleagues reporting on the UK battery storage market at Solar Power Portal.

Debt and equity financing worth US$1.9 billion has been closed for one of the US’ largest solar-plus-storage power plants to date.

A number of core challenges remain for lenders in the energy storage market, not least the relative nascency of it.

Funding has been raised towards the execution of two battery energy storage projects in Virginia and Texas with a total capacity of 400MW / 1,400MWh, from a partnership of two investment groups and a power project development company.

Australian renewable energy developer Genex Power has achieved financial close on what looks likely to be the country’s first new pumped hydro energy storage (PHES) plant in nearly 40 years.

Financial backing to support early development phases in battery storage and renewable energy projects has been found by Momentum Energy Storage Partners, a project development company launched by DNV GL’s former energy storage lead for the North Americas region.

Energy-Storage.news was delighted to be asked to moderate a session in which participants and pioneers of UK energy storage – and solar – gave their perspectives on everything from the right technologies and what they can do, how financiers view the market today, to how we can all join together to create a modern, clean and sustainable energy sector.